North Rhine-Westphalia authorities found suspicious bank accounts from 27 countries

04/15/2016

The financial authorities of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia reported that they have transmitted information on suspected Swiss bank accounts to the authorities of 27 European countries. These accounts worth a total of about $ 104 million. The information was obtained during an investigation of local tax authorities, which bought CD-disks with bank databases.

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On Thursday, Finance Minister of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia Norbert Walter-Borjans said that North Rhine-Westphalia handed over suspicious accounts data to the relevant authorities of 27 European countries. Total value of the accounts is about 100 million Swiss francs ($ 104 million). This is the data from a CD, purchased and analyzed by the local tax authorities. Recall that North Rhine-Westphalia has repeatedly acquired disks with information on the German clients of Swiss banks. From 2010 to 2013, the tax authorities have spent € 18 million on the purchase of illegal copies of bank databases. "The accounts prepared by our tax authorities during the investigation relate not only to German taxpayers," - said Mr. Walter-Borjans. The authorities reported to the financial authorities of the countries concerned. They, in turn, will check whether these funds are taxes are levied adequately or not.

According to Mr. Walter-Borjans, the scale of tax evasion is enormous: "Panamanian files once again showed the public that tax evasion comes not from the greed of individuals, but the whole system", - he said. "Thus, it is logical that we pass this information to other countries. If tax dodgers use international channels, then the tax authorities of different countries should cooperate, too", - the minister added. In his opinion, we need tough penalties for banks that help to evade taxes, up to the deprivation of their licenses. November last year, the government of North Rhine-Westphalia already transferred to the Ministry of Finance of Greece information on more than 10 thousand accounts of Greek citizens in Swiss banks, suspected of tax evasion. According to German media reports, the German government has now transferred the data to countries such as Great Britain, Spain, France, Austria and Belgium.